He stumbles upon an article on the internet that talks about "the illusion of danger" and "fantasies of consensual ravishment or agreed-to aggression" and "willing, or empowered, submission or surrender". The article says things like it’s the wish to be beyond will, beyond thought. It claims that ultimately, choosing to forfeit control may not be to lose it … but to powerfully assert it.

Steve doesn't know what to think about the article. He bookmarks it just in case.

“The Telegraph Kid runs with the Company—it’s, oh, you’ll find out once you settle in Encino, Lieutenant, but there’s a fair few blackguards in our territory. The Kid's the Iceman’s right hand man, and they say the only thing faster than his tongue are his fingers.”

Louis stands, in the middle of a clearing with his hands in his pockets, and stares. This boy—God, this gorgeous, gorgeous boy. He seems so clumsy, confused at the best of times, but there’s a wisdom about him as he speaks, a maturity that belies his age.

Louis is hopelessly, wildly attracted to him.

or, louis is a successful jockey down on his luck, struggling to get his life back on track after an injury. harry has a horse, a house fit for a prince, and a broken heart.

On 10 April 1912, Harry Styles boards the finest ship the world has ever seen. Still grieving the death of their mother, he and his sister are being sent to America to live with a callous uncle who cares more about his business connections than family. Harry prepares himself for a long, disappointing voyage alone in his stateroom.

Louis Tomlinson has borrowed and saved, and finally has enough to purchase a Third Class ticket to America. With all of his belongings in a single ruck sack, he boards the Titanic filled with hope for a brighter future. Never one to sit still, he can’t resist exploring the massive ship, and soon goes sneaking into First Class in a stolen steward’s uniform.

By a twist of fate, Louis finds himself in Harry’s stateroom, entranced by the most attractive man he’s ever laid eyes on. He keeps returning day after day, even if he doesn’t understand what it is about Harry that continues pulling him in. That’s all right; Louis has a week to figure it out, and Harry is plenty willing to help.

Except they don’t have a week. They have four days. Because on 15 April, their entire world will be turned upside down.

Louis expected certain things from the hiatus: songwriting sessions with Liam, long meetings for his new label, and lots of time in LA with Freddie. He never thought “getting together with Harry” would be on that list. Or that it would be followed quickly by “breaking up with Harry.”

It’s been nearly a year since they spoke, but when Niall’s save-the-date comes, Louis knows it’s only a matter of time before he and Harry have to talk about everything that’s happened between them. It doesn’t help that One Direction’s hiatus has an end-date and that, too, is rapidly approaching. The last thing he wants to do is spend an entire week trapped in an Irish castle where he’ll be forced to deal with everything, but Niall and Liam aren’t giving him any choice in the matter.

Louis never intended to fall in love with Harry: not five years into their time together in the band, not when they’re living on opposite continents, and especially not when he’s the new dad to a tiny human with way too much personality for anyone under nine pounds. Yet somehow Harry manages to worm his way into Louis’ life with every bit of weird affinity for Swedish homegoods and expensive baby clothes that you’d expect.

Harry thought he had a handle on things. He hasn’t gotten papped in over a month, even the most zealous of fans have given up on finding his location, the Fortress is starting to look hospitable, and Niall just learned how to make shrimp bisque. Even having a massive crush on a gorgeous mythical woodland creature was working out for him.

Most of the time.

On March 31st, Harry Styles disappears. Though many speculate, only two people know where to find him: Niall, his former guitarist, and Zayn, who follows where Niall leads.

The fact the biggest boy band in the world broke up two weeks earlier might be related to the disappearance. The fact Harry meets a fairy named Louis in the woods is a whole other matter.

The world ends on a Saturday, which throws a bit of a wrench into Louis' weekend plans. Now civilization appears to be destroyed, his roommate has run off into the countryside on a romantic quest, and Louis' only hope of surviving is an ASDA employee with a pair of swords and too much time on his hands.

At least the apocalypse is over and done with – anything else that goes wrong is really just a footnote.

His eyes were round, shocked into complete stillness. His cheeks were pink. One hand curled around grass, and Ronan watched, with a slow dawning of awareness, the way Adam's knuckles grew white as he tightened his hold on the ground.

Cabeswater, Ronan realized. Cabeswater had taken his dream and shared it with the only other person who could ever be close enough to Cabeswater to see it.

"…insofar as the two parties who want to wed should decide to do so before they have both reached the age of eighteen (section 1.ii) they will have a period of one year henceforth to decide if the marriage is fruitful and if not, they shall be allowed to part as if having not been married in the first place…" Section 2 of the 'Romeo and Juliet law', passed into law in Britain and its territories, 1803

They duck into a tattoo parlour that’s halfway between the city centre and Harry’s mum’s and Zayn gets two black lines carefully inked onto his left ring finger. He smiles up at Harry while it’s being done.

Undercover Metropolitan Police officer DC Louis Tomlinson has worked his way up the ranks of a prominent London crime family without raising suspicion, but when he finds himself pitted against a rising crime boss with a police background and a favoured employee by the name of Harry Styles, everything starts to unravel. Finding himself in the middle of an escalating war between two bosses whose bad blood runs deep into a violent past, Louis has to be even more careful where he steps in case his big secret catches up to him – and if it does, he knows he won't survive it.

Not to mention he's falling for someone he can't have – whose earnestness and honesty is a bright spot in a dark world – he can't sleep because his nightmares haunt him and he's in way over his head, but it's just a game, always just a game, and if Louis plays his cards right he might just make it out alive.

It's 2016. At the end of the band's last tour, Zayn and Harry get married in Vegas. It's not the worst thing that's ever happened to them, but it certainly comes close. Half fix-it fic, half woke up married.

“Tommo and Harry are gonna do it. I don’t know when, but they’re gonna do it. They’ve got the mattress, the pillows, everything’s in place, and they’re gonna do it. I really wish those two the best of luck.” –Taylor Swift, "Chapera"

Or a Survivor All-Stars AU in which Harry and Louis are just in this game to win the million dollars, but they end up with something better.

AU. Although he’s been primed for stardom his whole life by an overbearing mother, Louis finds himself unable to deal with the massive fame and success being a world-famous popstar has brought along after only four years in the spotlight and is driven to the brink, which generally means too much partying, too much drinking, too much scrutinization from the public eye, and maybe a couple truly terrible decisions here and there.

It’s not long before his downward spiral takes the inevitable turn for the worse, only to be cut-off in the grand scheme of things by Harry Styles, a young cop and aspiring politician. Despite his wearing grip on reality, Louis finds himself falling for Harry fast and hard, without realizing the consequences.

In the middle of the Where We Are Tour, Harry and Louis find themselves feeling a little amorous after attending Louis' mum's wedding. After indulging in some unprotected sex on an L.A. beach, Harry ends up pregnant, expecting twins just weeks after the end of their On the Road Again Tour.

Not only do the boys find themselves facing the daunting prospect of becoming parents at the height of their fame--not to mention during a worldwide stadium tour--but the boys are still closeted. Their lives are about to change, but though the changes are stressful, and the road is just a bit rough, they can't wait to welcome their twins into the world.

“I can see you don’t believe me,” Harry says, pretending to be stern. Louis chuckles a little but doesn’t get out of the bed. “Anyway, I texted Liam and told him you’re with me. He said to stay here as long as you need, and he’ll deal with the show over there until you want to come back, all right?”

Louis doesn’t say anything again so Harry whispers, “Just stay here with me for a while, yeah? I’ll take care of you.”

Louis is quiet. He never picks his head up, but Harry can see the pillow move from where he’s nodding and his fingers tighten around Harry’s. “Yeah,” Louis says. “Yeah, all right.”

After a car accident Louis is left with a condition that causes him to wake up at random points in his life with no recollection of any memories he's made past the age of nineteen. He has no clue who Liam is or the fact that they're married and Liam is forced to make Louis fall in love with him, over and over again.

All of Vyrantium's noble elite were invited to Magister Maecenas' dinner party to view her prize collection of Qunari antiquities and make polite conversation. Dorian Pavus had resigned himself to a long and boring evening, but a few wrong turns was all it took to change that.

Christmas AU in which Harry and Louis broke up three weeks ago. They haven't told the others, and they're planning to pretend everything's fine until after Liam's big Christmas Party. Which is just enough time to break Harry's heart all over again... but might also, just maybe, be enough time for Harry to fix everything and win Louis back.

Harry isn’t his responsibility, that’s not how it works, and Louis has survived this far with his sanity mostly intact by following the rules and playing the game and, above all, not feeling much of anything.

It's the beginning of Louis' second year at uni, and he's sharing a house with his four best friends in the world. This is going to be the best fucking year ever, Louis can just tell. The best fucking year ever.

With his best friend and eternal roommate Zayn getting married and abandoning him, Louis has planned the world's biggest stag do to send him off into married life – a week in Thailand showing him all the things he's going to be missing when he becomes a married man. But Zayn has neglected to mention that Louis' ex and their old uni friend Paddy will be coming – along with his successful, rich new boyfriend. Determined not to let Paddy ruin his fun once again, he enlists the help of an attractive backpacker by the name of Harry, who good-naturedly agrees to go along with pretending he's Louis' boyfriend for the week. A week of sun, sea, booze and no-strings-attached sex beckons, but as always, things don't go quite as planned...

It shouldn’t be a surprise, the first time that Louis drops to his knees in front of Harry. It shouldn’t be, because it’s been something that Louis has needed for a long time. It shouldn’t be, because he’s been crawling out of his skin for weeks on end. It shouldn’t be, because Harry always makes him feel better. It shouldn’t be, because he’s needed this even when he didn’t know that he needed it.

“Thought you were watching the movie,” Zayn added, and Louis stuck his tongue out and hit Zayn on the knee before going back to the screen. Zayn followed his example, apparently, his elbow knocking into Harry’s side as he wrapped his hand around the cuff, and so did Harry, very determinedly ignoring Liam’s questioning look. He was messing around with someone who was almost—sort of—kind of—a mate. He kissed Liam all the time, it didn’t mean they were soul mates.

Harry’s hand fell back to his hip as he settled in to watch Jasmine call Aladdin’s bluff. He could trace the letters by now, even through his boxers. He’d find him. He would. Someone who wouldn’t pull away, not ever. Someone who wouldn’t have to.

Now, staring down at the platinum band on his own left hand ("only the best for you, Liam," Louis had said, smirking as he slid the ring on Liam's finger), Liam wasn't so sure any of this was the best idea for an April Fool's prank. But both of them knew he would go along with it. Liam always did.

He’s walked this stretch countless times, but it’s different without the crowds, different when all the stores are closed. The street’s well lit and occasionally Louis walks past other people. He feels like he’s part of streetscape now, like there’s always meant to be someone walking home in the dead of night and tonight he’s that person, sobering up in the cold, his legs going numb so all he has to do is put his head down and keep moving forward and eventually his feet get him home. It’s reassuring, because even though he’s still stupid drunk, he knows how to do this, he knows how to get to where he needs to be. He just wishes he could also feel this way when it wasn’t four in the morning.
[AU set in Toronto, Canada.]

Louis notices the change as soon as Harry enters the sanctuary. He walks like there's weight on him, like it's hard for him to move closer to the altar. For a split second, Louis gets the impression that Harry is struggling to maintain his very form, that Harry is bigger than the body he's wearing and aching to stretch out, but that moment passes with Harry's next step.

[Louis is (kind of) a preacher. Harry is (probably) a demon. Of course, nothing's as simple as that.

The year is 1976. In November, Jimmy Carter will take control of the White House. Americans are meeting Laverne & Shirley at their apartment in Milwaukee. Hotel California diverges from the reign of Kool & the Gang. And the FBI is still reeling from the repercussions of Watergate, the tragedy at Wounded Knee, Operation Family Secrets, and the strategic terrors of the anti-cult movement.

That's what Special Agent Harry Styles has been told is the basis of his mission to an abandoned farmhouse in rural New Hampshire.

With his hair grown out long and his shirt untucked, he's going undercover to do reconnaissance on suspected cult leader Louis Tomlinson, who has led a group of people out into the middle of nowhere, leaving no record of the life he'd had before. All Harry knows is what the agency gave him: Tomlinson's name, and instructions to figure out what he's doing with the eleven people he brought with him.

Sometimes, when Harry's alone, he catches the scent of Tom Ford cologne where it doesn't exist. Louis's never stepped foot in this room, but Harry breathes in the ghost of him and pretends not to notice the goosebumps breaking out across his skin.

[While on holiday in 2011, Louis has an unexpected visitor from his future.]
“Please,” says Harry. “If there’s anyone in the world you can say it to, it’s me. We’re still best mates, aren’t we? We still have that, right?”

There’s something about the way his voice catches that makes Louis’s stomach pitch sharply. He hasn’t imagined a world where he and Harry stop being best mates, and he doesn’t want to. “Do we still live together when you’re from?” he asks.

“I can’t answer that,” says Harry, which is obviously a no because Harry isn’t less shit of a liar however many years on.

“I—” Louis starts, stopping himself abruptly and taking an extended pause before rushing out, “I miss you,” so fast that Liam almost, almost doesn’t catch it. He hears Louis’ sharp intake of breath on the other end and thinks that maybe Louis is just as surprised by his admission as he is. Okay.

"Yup," Louis nods. "You know the ones we sell, one die for a body part and the other for an action to perform on that… part."

"Isn't that what old married couples buy from you to spice things up?"

Louis frowns and opens his mouth to tell Harry off, but then he catches his absolutely dreamy expression and can only laugh. "Yes dear, we're just like any middle-aged married couple. Except for the fact that we're in our twenties and have a box full of bondage gear under our bed."

Two years after meeting in a sex shop, Harry's just returning to Louis from a month-long tour in the States, and they come up with a wholesome bonding exercise.

Written for a prompt of "the plane taking the boys to LA crashes and the boys are left alone and alive on a deserted island. They're the only five survivors on the plane. As time passes, they find that they will most likely never be rescued and go about settling down. (Building a shelter/house, harvesting food, etc). Just when they've finally settled in, and given in to the romantic relationship between the five of them that was bound to happen, rescue arrives. Back in the real world, they have to adjust to the real world again, but can they leave their relationship behind on the island? Or would they be happier staying the way they were?"

Small-town boy Zayn goes to the big city to seek adventure and fortune. What he finds, is Louis, who takes him in off the street and offers to make him a star. But as their relationship develops Zayn begins to realise his true heart's desire might have been at home all along...Harry.

Written for a prompt of the song Little Town from Beauty and the Beast.

“We could do a,” Harry leans forward, “like a, small show? or shows? Like, not a full tour. Not that we’re like, going to record or anything or change anything about our hiatus. But, we’ve got the songs?”

“Just a small thing,” Niall could slap himself for how light his voice comes out, clearing his throat and meeting Harry’s big eyes with his own, “just a bit of fun.”

He’s expecting retaliation, an immediate onslaught of childish violence, but Louis’s just rubbing his wrists and glaring. He still doesn’t look particularly subby, honestly: he mostly looks like he’s thinking about punching Liam in the crotch. But.

But Liam’s not getting assaulted, is he? And he’s quite sure he knows what that was about a moment ago, especially now Louis’s just standing there looking appalled and mutinous and a tiny bit questioning.

Nick chuckles quietly but grabs the remote and follows Emma, Aimee coming up close behind him. It’s indeed Harry on the telly, singing along to his latest radio hit and smiling slowly into the camera far too seductively for half eight on a Friday morning, if you ask Nick. He presses the volume just in time to catch the crowd’s roaring applause and see the pink flush Harry’s cheeks. Nick watches him duck his head as he gives a small wave to the audience, and it hits Nick that Harry is still the most humble and appreciative billionaire Nick’s ever met.

Good job, popstar, Nick thinks to himself.

or, Nick is a single dad and Harry is his bff and it's a bunch of years into the future and they fall in love

Harry surrenders his mug, burrowing in against Nick's side again as soon as Nick's put the mug down and he can. "I want people to know. Or think about asking. Not just assume that I'm straight because, you know."

"Because that's all they've seen?" Nick gives in to temptation, just a little, and strokes Harry's hair, trying to ignore the pleased sound he gets in response. "You're right, that is rubbish."

"I know!" Harry says, like it's a revelation. "It's rubbish how people think I'm straight because I like girls."

This is how it starts. It begins with a lie, so pay attention. Some people lie to forget the past, and some lie to forget the present. You can't always judge them for it. Because anyone who lies on a daily basis, the people who can do it without batting an eye, without it letting it ruin them, those are the people who need it the most. They don't do it to hurt anyone, or even to hurt themselves. They just do it because they have to.

Nick hasn't been pining. He doesn't pine, he's much too cool for that. What he's been feeling the past few weeks is more like a sort of aching low-level horniness, because Louis has been gone for three months and Nick hasn't had any sort of sex since the last time Louis walked out of his flat to go on tour. And there isn't even any kind of causal link between those two things, so Aimee can just shut the fuck up. He's been busy, that's all. It's not like he and Louis are exclusive. It's not like he and Louis are even in a relationship, since most of the time they just hook up and get drunk and snipe at each other. They're both entirely free to sleep with other people and not make any plans to sleep with each other again.

The first time Caroline asks him if he's fantasised about having sex with another guy, she has to take her mouth off his cock to do it, so Harry doesn't think it's entirely his fault if he blurts out the truth instead of a careful lie.

what if when Nick and Harry are at Nick's flat they just can't keep their hands off of each other and they end up in bed (or on the sofa or the floor) all the time, shagging their brains out, and they are actually annoyed by it after a while, so they decide to do some normal stuff, like JUST cooking or JUST watching the telly or even once some stupid game but it's just so hard, and it's funny and they are frustrated

Before Karl got married, he referred a friend to Charlotte, let’s call him Chris. That’s how it works: Harry only goes by referrals. I think we have a friend in common, they’re supposed to say when they call or see him sitting in a bar, nursing an £18 gin and tonic, which is all very le Carré, but that’s part of the game as well. Actually, it isn’t a game at all because the whole thing falls apart if they’re not discrete. [ AU where Harry’s a male escort and Zayn’s a professional footballer written for the prompt 'anything involving switching']